Ok, that was basically perfect. I have one gripe but I will get to that.

It was completely unexpected and wonderfully surprising how they worked Gretchen and her husband into it. I worried that Walt would waste vengeance on them but it was perfect the way he used them.

The ending was as expected as an ending could be with this show, but it was so satisfying and cathartic.

My only issue is the ricin… I watched that coffee shop scene as close as I could and I still don’t know how Walt poisoned Lydia without her noticing. Not only that, but using it on her is just kind of anticlimactic after 5 seasons of build up with it considering she really didn’t have THAT much to do with the hell that rained down on Walt at the end.

Regardless, that’s small potatoes, and congrats Gilligan and Co. for making as good of a finale as they could.

She was a creature of routine, which he even said to her during their three-way meeting. He knew which table she would sit at and that she would use the Stevia. So, he made his own Stevia/Ricin packet. If you notice, there was only one packet available.

The only thing I could figure is that he put it in the packet before Lydia or Todd arrived….hence it being the only one at the table. How Walt knew which table they’d take….her ‘habit’ I guess. I can live with it :)

The ricin isn’t anticlimactic…only because Lydia was the one who sent the neo-Nazis to threaten Skyler and WW’s family, and then complained that freaking Todd didn’t kill them. She would have sent others after the family, so she needed to die.

Idk, I don’t have cable so just rewatched the season online and had to read liveblogging for the finale…but it’s clear to the audience from the episode before this that Lydia had told Todd to go “take care of” Skyler.
And honestly if it had just been a “do it because Mike told you to” situation, I’d still be pretty satisfied with that, personally — because *Mike.*

@dissident- You’ll notice that there are a lot of parallels between Lydia’s behavior and Walt’s behavior back in the Gus days. It’s safe to say that Walt could realize the same thing and he knows what kind of person he’s dealing with.

Badfinger were a band who had some incredible early success, but went into business with a guy who was known to hang around Nazis, and he stabbed them in the back and destroyed their fortune. A few months later, the leader of the group committed suicide. SOUND FAMILIAR?!?! NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY, VINCE GILLIGAN IS A GENIUS!@!!@ MINDHOLE BLOWN!@!!!!

In the end, Walter destroyed some of the evil he unwittingly created, and provided his family with the money he earned, that he truly started out his life of crime for.

But he died, knowing he would never have any credit for providing for his family, and that was fine with him. Finally finding some redemption in a selfless manner, and setting Skyler free emotionally with his confession of being addicted to winning.

Here’s to you Walter, one of the most complex, greatest characters I’ve ever seen.

And here’s to you, Jesse. May you finally manage to find a life for yourself.

Here’s to Jesse maybe still managing to find a life worth living, and Walt finding a measure of redemption. In the end he did what he truly only meant to do at the start: provide for his family after his death, before an addiction to winning and empire building took over. Now his children will get his money but without ever knowing it comes from him. No credit or appreciation for it will come his way, even post-humously…but in the end, he’s finally okay with that, while also catching a bullet for Jesse, destroying the blue meth empire, and dying on his own terms.